1) Justification
Evangelicals teach that sinners are justified on the basis of faith alone, and that ones’ faith is placed in the finished substitutionary work of Jesus on the cross, confirmed by his glorious resurrection, and that this is a gift based entirely on his grace. Finally, that justification is complete and total at the moment of our conversion, and that believers never grow more justified.
In contrast the Catholic church teaches that justification is a process that includes works (with those works “infusing” one’s faith), and that those works are the cause of the justification process. Beyond that, the Catholic Church teaches:
“If anyone says, that by faith alone the impious is justified; let him be anathema” (Council of Trent #9)
Or:
“If anyone says that the justice [or justification] received is not preserved and also not increased before God through good works but that those works are merely the fruits and signs of justification obtained, but not the cause of the increase, let him be anathema” (Council of Trent, 24).
2. The Pope as head of the church
For evangelicals, the church is made up of all of those who have been justified by God through faith. Local churches are led by elders, and each church is generally autonomous. Jesus Christ is the head of the church, and there is no authority over any local church on earth apart from Scripture. Elders and pastors are fallible in how they lead the church.
In the Roman Catholic teaching, the church is composed of laity and is led by those who have received the sacrament of Holy Orders (deacons, priests and bishops). The head of the church is the Pope, who when speaking authoritatively on matters relating to the church, is protected from the possibility of error concerning doctrine and morals of the church. Also, for anyone to be saved, they must be under the Pope’s authority:
“We declare, say, define, and pronounce that it is absolutely necessary for the salvation of every human creature to be subject to the Roman Pontiff” (Unam Sanctam, 1302).
3. Mass vs. communion
For evangelicals, communion is commemorative, and acts as a remembrance of the substitutionary atoning work of Jesus. The bread is symbolic of the body, and wine symbolic of the blood. There is nothing mystical or meritorious about it, but it is a means of grace and of provoking growth in godliness.
The Catholic Church teaches transubstantiation, that the bread and wine are transformed literally into the body and blood of Jesus. Thus in the mass, the priest calls Jesus down from heaven, and in the breaking of the bread Jesus is re-sacrificed. The mass is meritorious, as one of the seven sacraments, and it is a “true and proper sacrifice.” Here again is the council of Trent:
If any one saith that in the Mass a true and proper sacrifice is not offered to God; or, that to be offered is nothing else but that Christ is given us to eat; let him be anathema.”
As a side note, many of the Protestants and puritans made martyrs by the RCC went to their deaths over this issue. They considered participation in the Mass to be idolatry, and refused, and often were put to death for their refusal.
4. Mary
For evangelicals, Mary was Jesus’ mother, a sinner, and one who was saved from her sins by her faith in Jesus. We recognize a period of her life where she did not believe in Jesus (see, for example, Mark 3:30-33 ), but that by the time of Jesus’ death she had placed her faith in him as her Messiah. She had other children after Jesus, and died a physical death. She is to be admired as a woman of faith.
In the Catholic Church, Mary is an object of devotion—and in much of the world, she is an object of outright worship. It is normative to pray to her (consider, for example, the Hail Mary), and it is taught that she was sinless. In fact, the Immaculate Conception is the Catholic doctrine that Mary was conceived without a sin nature, thus she was not a recipient of Jesus’ redemption, but instead was a participant in that redemption. She was a perpetual virgin, and did not die a physical death, but was rather assumed into heaven, where she reigns now as the Queen of heaven and is herself Ineffabilis Deus (“ineffable God,” or “inexplicably divine”)
5. Purgatory
Evangelicals believe that there is no such place as purgatory, but that hell is real and heaven is obtainable only as a gift from God, through faith in Jesus’ sacrifice, and this is all of grace. For those who place their faith in Jesus, when they die they are immediately ushered into glory, where they will be in the presence of the Lord.
In Catholic theology, purgatory is where Catholics go when they die. Only those who are in a state of grace may go there, and once you have suffered for your non-mortal sins, you are made ready to see heaven. Thus purgatory is not eternal—but it is like hell in another way: purgatory involves both flames and suffering, and serves to make atonement for sins that you did not confess before you die. In many ways, Purgatory is the glue that holds the system together. Because it is a system where eternal judgment is based on works, and because sins are frequent and it is impossible to know and confess all of ones’ sins, purgatory is an essential piece of Catholic theology.
I give this list here simply because it always surprises me to find those that say “Catholics and Christians believe the same thing on the important issues, it is just in details where they differ.” Well, I suppose it matters what the “important issues are” but these five certainly touch on areas that are essential to the gospel.

Augustine corrected this heresy with his teachings on grace.

It is God’s grace, continually working in and through creation and in and through our own lives that empowers our faith, empowers our good works and empowers the supernatural transformation of our lives.[/b]

While we don’t have to be perfect at once, that is our destiny, our calling and the hard adventure on which we must embark.

God’s good grace gives us the power to do this.

Without his grace we are paralyzed by sin and locked in darkness.

With his grace we can be free.

So, Dummy boy you got this one totally wrong . . .


Evangelicals teach that sinners are justified on the basis of faith alone, and that ones’ faith is placed in the finished substitutionary work of Jesus on the cross, confirmed by his glorious resurrection, and that this is a gift based entirely on his grace.
Finally, that justification is complete and total at the moment of our conversion, and that believers never grow more justified.
In contrast the Catholic church teaches that justification is a process that includes works (with those works “infusing” one’s faith), and that those works are the cause of the justification process. Beyond that, the Catholic Church teaches:
“If anyone says, that by faith alone the impious is justified; let him be anathema” (Council of Trent #9)
Or:
“If anyone says that the justice [or justification] received is not preserved and also not increased before God through good works but that those works are merely the fruits and signs of justification obtained, but not the cause of the increase, let him be anathema” (Council of Trent, 24).


2. The Pope as head of the church: You will always argue till blue in the face on the Pope, the head of the Christian church.

For evangelicals, the church is made up of all of those who have been justified by God through faith. Local churches are led by elders, and each church is generally autonomous. Jesus Christ is the head of the church, and there is no authority over any local church on earth apart from Scripture. Elders and pastors are fallible in how they lead the church.

In the Roman Catholic teaching, the church is composed of laity and is led by those who have received the sacrament of Holy Orders (deacons, priests and bishops). The head of the church is the Pope, who when speaking authoritatively on matters relating to the church, is protected from the possibility of error concerning doctrine and morals of the church. Also, for anyone to be saved, they must be under the Pope’s authority:

“We declare, say, define, and pronounce that it is absolutely necessary for the salvation of every human creature to be subject to the Roman Pontiff” (Unam Sanctam, 1302).


3. Mass vs. communion: What about Anglicans and Lutherans ? They also believe in "Transubstantiation" ? Your heretical teaching is the dumbing down of Christianity.

For evangelicals, communion is commemorative, and acts as a remembrance of the substitutionary atoning work of Jesus. The bread is symbolic of the body, and wine symbolic of the blood. There is nothing mystical or meritorious about it, but it is a means of grace and of provoking growth in godliness.

The Catholic Church teaches transubstantiation, that the bread and wine are transformed literally into the body and blood of Jesus. Thus in the mass, the priest calls Jesus down from heaven, and in the breaking of the bread Jesus is re-sacrificed. The mass is meritorious, as one of the seven sacraments, and it is a “true and proper sacrifice.” Here again is the council of Trent:
If any one saith that in the Mass a true and proper sacrifice is not offered to God; or, that to be offered is nothing else but that Christ is given us to eat; let him be anathema.”

As a side note, many of the Protestants and puritans made martyrs by the RCC went to their deaths over this issue. They considered participation in the Mass to be idolatry, and refused, and often were put to death for their refusal.

4. Mary: You will always argue till blue in the face on "Mary the Mother of God."

For evangelicals, Mary was Jesus’ mother, a sinner, and one who was saved from her sins by her faith in Jesus. We recognize a period of her life where she did not believe in Jesus (see, for example, Mark 3:30-33 ), but that by the time of Jesus’ death she had placed her faith in him as her Messiah. She had other children after Jesus, and died a physical death. She is to be admired as a woman of faith.
In the Catholic Church, Mary is an object of devotion—and in much of the world, she is an object of outright worship. It is normative to pray to her (consider, for example, the Hail Mary), and it is taught that she was sinless. In fact, the Immaculate Conception is the Catholic doctrine that Mary was conceived without a sin nature, thus she was not a recipient of Jesus’ redemption, but instead was a participant in that redemption. She was a perpetual virgin, and did not die a physical death, but was rather assumed into heaven, where she reigns now as the Queen of heaven and is herself Ineffabilis Deus (“ineffable God,” or “inexplicably divine”)

5. Purgatory:

Evangelicals believe that there is no such place as purgatory, but that hell is real and heaven is obtainable only as a gift from God, through faith in Jesus’ sacrifice, and this is all of grace. For those who place their faith in Jesus, when they die they are immediately ushered into glory, where they will be in the presence of the Lord.

In Catholic theology, purgatory is where Catholics go when they die. Only those who are in a state of grace may go there, and once you have suffered for your non-mortal sins, you are made ready to see heaven. Thus purgatory is not eternal—but it is like hell in another way:

Purgatory involves both flames and suffering, and serves to make atonement for sins that you did not confess before you die. In many ways, Purgatory is the glue that holds the system together. Because it is a system where eternal judgment is based on works, and because sins are frequent and it is impossible to know and confess all of ones’ sins, purgatory is an essential piece of Catholic theology.

I give this list here simply because it always surprises me to find those that say “Catholics and Christians believe the same thing on the important issues, it is just in details where they differ.”

Well, I suppose it matters what the “important issues are” but these five certainly touch on areas that are essential to the gospel.

Dummy Boy,

Do some real biblical research and Investigate Jesus's Parable of the Weeds: Matthew 13: 24-30 which counters your heretical Protestant perspective ?

Still trying to be the Righteous Few. Still attacking and bulling Christians, I see and pushing the Anti-Catholic Compost propaganda rhetoric once again.

. . . And no, . . . you didn't covered your bases to well. All you have done is quibble hericie's and have sown the seeds of religious protestant deceit. All you have done is shown your Protestant or Independent religious perspective.

All you have done is tell "Half-Truth's" anti-Catholic differences, from your Protestant or Independent religious perspective.


That my unreligious friend is called a "Fallacy-Idiom", a "StrawMan Red Herring" argument and are just changing the Religious Argument "Goal-Post's".

How very Deceitful of you and religiously Disingenuous of You. . . .


Still playing the same old anti-Catholic game. Shame on You . . .


Opponent of Catholic Christianity are quite willing to critique what they feel to be our glaring deficiencies, but quite unwilling (for some strange reason) to examine what we regard as the shortcomings in theirs.

People in all worldviews seem to be much better at levying charges and poking holes, than at scrutinizing their own beliefs, wouldn’t you agree? Just human nature, I would argue.

Either we reject both scenarios as misrepresentations of our views, or it seems to me that we must accept them both as representative, however distant or objectionable the “inclusion” may be. - David Armstrong


You see Dummy Boy, Here inlay's your "Deceit and Heresy." Your title, "5 differences between Catholic theology and the gospel."

You can't even get the "Title" even right. Duhh . . .

The Catholic strict adherence to the Old Testament, The New Testaments teaching and the "Good News" Gospel of Jesus Christ:
a. Mathew, Mark, Luke, John and Acts of the Apostles.
b. There is also the Catholic teaching arm, the "Magisterium" that hasn't changed in 1985 years of Christ's teaching.


You see dummy boy, A heresy is never totally wrong.

It's just that, it is never totally right.

A heresy is a half truth or a truth twisted.

A heresy is a religious truth you would make up if you were making up a religion.


However, Catholic truth is stranger and subtler than that, and it takes sound teaching to expose and battle the heresy.


Heresies are persistent because they are attractive, and they are persistent because they usually console the heretic in some way.

In other words, it is easier to believe the heresy than the fullness of the Catholic truth.


The fullness of the Catholic truth is either difficult to believe, or difficult to obey or both.


The heresy always offers an easy way out–either an easier way of believing or an easier way of behaving.


1. The first heresy Augustine battled was Donatism.

The Donatists were a schism in the North African Church that were sort of like Puritanical Protestant or Jansenists.

They thought the church should be pure, and should be a church of saints, not sinners.

They were unwilling to accept back those Christians who, out of weakness, compromised their faith during the persecutions and they insisted that for sacraments to be valid the priest had to be faultless.

While this sort of rigorism is understandable, it doesn’t take much to see where it leads.

It leads to "Unbearable Self Righteousness".

“We few, we holy few. We are the remnant, the true church, the only real Christians.” . . .


Nonsense.


If you think the core error of Donatism does not exist today, look a little harder within you and your churches Theology.


Although the name “Donatism” is now a footnote of church history there are plenty of rigorist schisms and sects and plenty of the attitude within individuals and groups in many different churches.


The fact is, most heresies, while seeming attractive, can be countered very easily with a passage from the gospel.


Heretical Protestants such as yourself, "Dummy Boy" and "Balmer" should read the parable of the Wheat and Tares.


The sinners and the saints grow together and "God" will sort it out.


Matthew 13: 24-30 New International Version (NIV)The Parable of the Weeds:

24 - Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field.
25 - But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away.
26 - When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.
27 - “The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’
28 - “‘An enemy did this,’ he replied. “The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’
29 - “‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them.
30 - Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters:
First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’”